NIH grant funds new research center in Englewood

A Chicago community health network has received a nearly $7 million federal grant to build a research center in the impoverished Englewood neighborhood.

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago community health network has received a nearly $7 million federal grant to build a research center in the impoverished Englewood neighborhood.

Access Community Health says the National Institutes of Health-funded project will be the first-ever for a federally-qualified health center network.

Construction is set to begin early next year.

The idea is to take research out of the academic setting and directly into communities that may benefit. Englewood has high rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. So researchers might seek to pinpoint problems unique to African-Americans recovering from heart surgery, or to Hispanics with diabetes.

The group hopes to partner with residents to find solutions to health disparities — an arrangement that the NIH hopes will be a model for other underserved communities.